JAMES ASTILL, Nairobi | Thursday
KENYAN victims of the American embassy bombing in Nairobi three years ago expressed anger at their failure to win compensation yesterday, and dismay at the large sums being promised to victims of the September 11 attacks.
The disparity could only be explained if Americans were considered to be “superior victims”, activists representing more than 5_000 Kenyans injured in the explosion which introduced Osama bin Laden to the world said yesterday.
“No action was taken here because the victims were not Americans,” said Paul Wala, chairman of one survivors’ association. “Nobody should draw boundaries between Americans and Kenyans, we are all equal and demand equal compensation,” he said at a press conference cluttered with the canes, crutches and wheelchairs of 36 survivors.
The US says it has contributed more than 30m in medical fees and rebuilding since the blast, which killed 212 people and ripped a hole through central Nairobi. But the injured and bereaved are demanding additional compensation payments, saying the US government ignored warnings from its own officials about the embassy’s security.
The US government has promised to compensate victims of the September 11 attacks, and payouts are expected to run into billions of dollars.
But in Kenya “three years down the line they have done nothing,” said Simon Kingori, whose spine was broken in the explosion. “People who don’t have any source of income, any security whatsoever, they’re left in the hands of God.”
The US secretary of state, Colin Powell, was urged to come up with a compensation package for the bomb victims during a visit to Nairobi in May. But yesterday the American embassy in Nairobi, still operating out of temporary premises on the edge of the city, said there would be no payouts. “We were victims of the bombing along with the survivors,” said an embassy spokesman.
Many of the survivors gathered yesterday are already suing America for compensation. Two lawsuits, one representing 2_700 Kenyans, the other 1,000, were filed in the federal court in Washington last week.
John Burris, a US civil rights lawyer acting for one of the groups, said they hoped to receive a portion of the estimated 500-million worth of Bin Laden’s and the Taliban’s frozen assets.
The Nairobi blast followed an identical attack on the America embassy in Dar es Salaam minutes before, in which 11 people were killed, and which Osama bin Laden is also accused of orchestrating. – The Guardian FEATURES:
Special report: Shattered World: The September 11 attack on the US, and its aftermath